As some of you know we have been very fortunate to have had Peregrine Falcons nesting on the railroad bridge near Chickamauga Dam, they were discovered there in 1997 and we had a pair nesting each year until May 2007.
The male Peregrine was named” Roi “and he had four different female partners during this time, the latest female was named “Dreama”. During a hunting trip for food to feed chicks in the nest Roi flew into a window near Engle Stadium and broke his wing, he was taken to the Chattanooga Zoo, they sent him to UT Vet Hospital in Knoxville who repaired his wing, a few weeks later he developed infection and the wing was amputated, a week later Roi died.
This left Dreama to raise the chicks in the nest and wonder what happened to Roi.
Dreama remained near the bridge, she could be located most any day high on the steel tower on Roi’s favorite perch looking for him long after the chicks were gone. About March 1, 2008 Dreama disappeared, we expected she was looking for a new territory and had given up hope for Roi to return, then suddenly she was back on her perch in early June , where she has remained since.
Nesting Peregrine Falcons are very rare, in fact there has only been two known nesting pair of Peregrines in Tennessee in the past 75 years, one in the Smoky Mtns., the other on the railroad bridge.
This week Charles Dean stopped to check on Dreama and she was on her perch , we are watching her close to see if she will migrate when the weather cools, we hope you enjoy the photos Charles made of Dreama, what a beautiful bird and what a joy it has been to check on the Peregrines the past eleven years.
If you would like to know more about these Peregrines click on the Riverwalk Bird Club web page at http://home.comcast.net/~rwbirdclub then click on the Roi Story and
Downloads for more information and many great photos’ look for them down the left side. Also check out the new feature that Jack has added to the web site and Explore the Riverwalk via Microsoft virtual earth. We hope Dreama will stay the winter but if not we can look forward to her return in January.
Good Birdin’
